


Mandatory Fun

by fhsa_archivist



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Challenge Response
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-13
Updated: 2007-09-13
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhsa_archivist/pseuds/fhsa_archivist
Summary: Written for oc_challenge.  Carson Beckett, original character.  Elizabeth orders the crew to have a day of mandatory fun and orders John Sheppard to get everyone there...is there such a thing as "pre-het"??





	Mandatory Fun

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Haven, the archivist: This story was originally archived at [Fandom Haven Story Archive (FHSA)](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Haven_Story_Archive), was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2016. To preserve the archive, I began working with the OTW to transfer the stories to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. If you are this creator and the work hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Fandom Haven Story Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/fhsa/profile).

Erin tracked the cursor around her computer screen disinterestedly, half-heartedly dodging balls into their counterparts. The serpentine of balls slipped into a gaping hole and disappeared. She started the game again, really only playing at playing it and distinctly not trying to keep up with at all. A quick knock on the open door of the room she worked in distracted her and John Sheppard entered without waiting to be asked.

 

"Good afternoon, Colonel."

 

"You know there's a bar-b-que on the south pier, right? Down by the big, uh...atrium....thing. It's an all-hands, invitation-only-and-everyone's-invited kinda thing. In other words, you're supposed to be there."

 

Erin watched the latest round of balls slide into oblivion without protest.

 

Twisting the chair around from the table she sat at, she explained, "I'm absorbing the quiet and the alone, sir."

 

"Don't you have your own quarters, now?" Sheppard picked up a curved bit of metal he suspected was part of one of the generators. Or a dishwasher - could go either way. He held it at face level and squinted through the loop on one side, moving it back and forth as though focusing in on her.

 

"Yes," Erin confirmed, "over in that last section of North Tower that Dr. Mackay and his team okay'ed for habitation."

 

"How long's that been?"

 

"About two weeks ago."

 

He squinted harder through the makeshift "eye-piece". "How's that working out for you?"

 

"Great. Room's wonderful."

 

"But no roommate, right?" he pushed.

 

"No," she admitted.

 

"And that's still not enough 'alone' time for you? What is this thing?" he changed subjects without waiting for a reply. He brought the loop up and rimmed his eye, pressing it to his face.

 

"The retainer handle of a toilet."

 

Sheppard opened his hand; the piece clattered loudly as it landed on the Ancient floor.

 

"It's been hermetically sealed for the last ten thousand years, so I think you're safe," she assured him flatly.

 

"That's still an image I'm not getting rid of any time soon," he breathed, grimacing as he wiped his hand down his jacket, wiping at his face, too, for good measure.

 

Erin prudently remained silent. 

 

"Aren't you an engineer - shouldn't you be engineering some engine, or something?" he grumped.

 

"That would be a mechanic, sir. And I can do that, too."

 

"Right. I knew that," he covered without sincerity. "So back to this alone thing....." 

 

He rummaged through some random items on the table, scrutinizing and abandoning them almost as quickly as he picked them up.

 

"I'm just really not in the mood for a party, sir," she deflected.

 

"Well," he picked up a coiled bit of what looked like frosted glass, "you're in luck, I just came from there and believe me, it's not much of a party. Hey, this isn't part of a toilet, too, is it?"

 

Erin shook her head and held up a hand to forestall his next question even as he opened his mouth. Nodding, Sheppard put it back down and tried another table.

 

"So, it's not much of a party and yet you want me to go to it? Gee, sir, thanks."

 

"Well, it would be a party if more people would show up," he countered petulantly.

 

"Not that many people there, huh?"

 

"No, actually just about everyone is there." He shifted through some dowels and fasteners, seeming a lot more interested in them than the conversation.

 

Erin frowned, thoroughly confused. "But you just said..."

 

He shrugged. "I'm still trying to get you to go, so I'm employing a bunch of different tactics. Are you coming yet?"

 

She pointedly ignored the double entendre and declined again. "I really appreciate the effort to come and get me but I'd honestly rather - "

 

"Stay here and play Zuma for the next three hours?" he interrupted. "You were losing anyway. Hey," he added, as though it'd just occurred to him, "how'd you get the internet on your computer all the way out here?"

 

"I downloaded the game before we left."

 

Sheppard scowled. "I shoulda thought of that. How long till your one-hour freebie trial runs out?"

 

"I actually bought it," Erin confessed sheepishly, "I think I get a year."

 

"A year? Mind if I play it some?" He knocked over a small shelf of smaller parts. They hit the slick tabletop and went and every direction. He righted the shelf and scooped a few of the pieces up, dumping them back on the shelf apologetically.

 

"Don't worry 'bout those, they're not in any particular order. And I'm sure someone here could copy it and put it on your machine."

 

"That'd be sweet. So, you coming?" He took a couple of suggestive, leading steps toward the door, trying to get her to follow him.

 

Erin opened her mouth to decline and he cut her off before she spoke.

 

"Look, I'm just asking for you to show up. Honestly? The dating pool around here is fairly limited, ancient energy-being goddesses notwithstanding, so I'm trying to keep my options open."

 

"And you're just going to forget that whole officer-enlisted thing?" she pointed out.

 

"Pickings here are pretty slim and I'm thinking the fraternization policy really ought to be less severe overall."

 

"And the rest of the military's gonna go along with you on this one, sir?"

 

"I actually hadn't gotten that far yet in my theory. Rough edges to smooth out and all," he admitted.

 

"Let me know how that goes, Colonel."

 

"Why'd you come out here, Kassidy?" he asked abruptly.

 

"Come again, sir?"

 

"See, me? I sat down in that stupid chair back in Antartica and it went to hell after that - here I am, I don't even know how far from home. But folks like you - you're all volunteers. Top of your fields, best in class - "

 

"I begged to come here, called in favours, schemed like crazy, you have no idea."

 

"I might. Weir saw something in you she liked, so you definitely did something right, if you call volunteering to get yourself stranded a coupla dozen galaxies away from home doing-something-right. But you - you had a lot going for you on Earth, just graduated, with honours, right?"

 

She nodded.

 

"Graduated from Georgia Tech, accepted for OCS and Officer's Training. Why'd you chuck it all and come halfway across the Universe?"

 

"It _is_ Atlantis, sir," she pointed out, as if it should explain tossing everything she'd ever worked for down the tubes and catching the first wormhole out of the galaxy. "And for what it's worth, you're creeping me out with the knowing a little too much of everything about me."

 

"Personnel files," he dismissed. "I read through all the military personnel files right after Colonel Sumner - "

 

"Of course," she interrupted before he could get lost in that thought, "rule #1: know the people in your command."

 

"Exactly," he smiled triumphantly. "Hang on - there's a rule book for this?" 

 

He waited for her response. Realizing she wasn't going to get out of the question, Erin studied her fingernails for a long moment before answering. 

 

"I needed the break," she admitted.

 

Sheppard straddled a barstool high chair and leaned onto the backrest, arms folded in front of him. "From what?"

 

"Life had become....."

 

She hesitated for so long that Sheppard wondered if he were going to have to drag the words out of her.

 

".....too stressful," she offered finally.

 

Sheppard's brows drew together close enough for unification. "So you thought maybe what you needed was a couple of relaxing decades at Club Atlantis? To get away from it all?"

 

"Actually," she drug the word out, knowing how lame what she was about to say was going to sound, "I came here for the greater cause," and waited for him to indicate he understood what she meant.

 

He shook his head, indicating he didn't.

 

"Back on Earth, I felt buried under all these small, petty things that just didn't matter and I couldn't get out from under it and I just wanted to belong to something bigger than all of it was, bigger than I was," she summed up, hoping it didn't sound nearly as lame as she was sure it did.

 

"Well, yeah, this might just qualify," he allowed.

 

"Mostly I just wanted to be on a team that was united in one goal. Cheesy, I know, but I've played in the 'boys'-club' for a really long time and I haven't always been exactly a welcomed member. I can be pretty pushy when I know what I doing and I really think I'm right."

 

"No, really?" Sheppard feigned shock and surprise. "I hadn't heard," he said, making it plain that he had, in fact, heard - very much.

 

"Laugh it up," she begrudged. "I just got really tired of the petty crap. I thought that here would be different."

 

"Is it?"

 

"Well, it's a whole 'nother galaxy of different, sir. It's about as different as you can get." 

 

"People aren't," he surprised her with his insight, "people are pretty much the same no matter what galaxy you put them in. So, did you find what you were looking for?"

 

She hedged, not answering.

 

"So you wanted to be on a team, buuuut you're sitting here when everybody's at a bar-b-que," Sheppard summed up discerningly. "Listen, all that stuff that you were trying to get away from? It's just gonna follow you here. It's gonna keep following you until you walk away from it."

 

Erin stared at him. Hard.

 

"What? I got rib sauce on my face?" Sheppard wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand self-consciously. 

 

"No, I just always thought of you as the flippant one."

 

Sheppard helped himself to some of her dried trail-mix snack. "I can surprise you."

 

"I'll bet you can, sir," she agreed.

 

"I'll have you know I'm downright shocking to most folk."

 

"You'll get no argument from me, sir."

 

"Come on, bar-b-que's getting cold and I'm just gonna sit here and nag you till you do go, so make it easy on yourself, give in and let's go."

 

Erin still didn't move.

 

"Come on," he repeated in a whiny sing-song, "I need a wingman."

 

"Wingman, sir?" she made a face.

 

"Yeah, we're the only two Air Force types out here and we gotta stick together. I mean, yeah, we got good representation from the Army and Marines, but - Grunts? Jarheads? Ewwww, if you know what I'm saying," he added conspiratorially.

 

"Sir?"

 

He stretched across the table, leaning close to her. 

 

"All right. Here's the situation: it's fourth quarter, fourth down, ten yards to go and fifteen seconds left on the clock."

 

"This is a football metaphor, right?"

 

"Go with me on this one, Kassidy."

 

"Yes, sir." Her face fell with sudden realization of where he was going. "You're going to order me to go, aren't you, sir?"

 

"Pretty much," he affirmed. "Right now, there are only six people not at that party - three Marines on watch in the Gate Room, one guy in the infirmary, and me and you."

 

Erin held her hands up. 

 

"I concede defeat."

 

"Transporter's this way," Sheppard encouraged, practically running to the lab door.

 

As she passed him, Erin offered over her shoulder - "By the way, sir?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"We aren't the only two Air Force on Atlantis."

 

"Did I say two? I meant ten."

 

"A hundred, sir."

 

Sheppard rolled his eyes.

 

"Details, details...."

 

 

 

 

The transporter commuted a good 90% of their trek to the South Pier and five minutes after Erin's surrender, she and Sheppard joined the gathering on South Pier. Erin broke away to line up at the heavily laden table of food while Sheppard went in search of the head of the Atlantis team. 

 

"Does this seem like potato salad to you?" Beckett ask her curiously, holding up a spoonful of brownish, vaguely casserole-looking food. "You're from the south, right, so you'd know if it were potato salad or not."

 

"It doesn't look like any potato salad my mom ever made." Erin studied it carefully. "Did you try it yet?"

 

"Not yet. I was hoping someone else would be the guinea pig." He offered the spoon in her direction hopefully.

 

"You're on your own, Doc," she laughed.

 

 

 

 

Sheppard sidled up to Elizabeth Weir, hand extended.

 

"Pay up," he smiled confidently.

 

"How did you get her out of that lab? I talked to her for an hour this morning and she still turned me down."

 

"It's all about the charm," Sheppard smoozed, wiggling his fingers for his pay-off.

 

"You ordered her to come, didn't you?" she accused flatly, frowning.

 

"You didn't say I couldn't," he pointed out. "The bet was to get every available person here - and here they all are. Pay up."

 

"Charming, my ---, you did order her here. What'd you do for the others, threaten them?"

 

Sheppard grinned, not denying it and taking Elizabeth's last bag of popcorn out of her hand. 

 

"But I was very charming....."


End file.
